ORBzine - Farscape - December 1999

Season 3

This Season has a new introduction. There is a different monologue, which unfortunately features distracting repetition - the nightmares/wonders I've seen. The new music is more toned-down, too.

However, there are some good improvements too. Crais and Scorpius are both Season regulars now.

Farscape [Season 3, Episode 1] Season of Death
Shown 27th August [Monday]

Grunslick is double-crossing, Scorpius is manipulative. No change there then. The result is that the episode is slightly predictable.

Farscape [Season 3, Episode 2] Suns and Lovers
Shown 3rd September 2001 [Monday]

Moya visits a space station. Finally the Dargo/Chiana/Joffey Arc is sorted out. The second pseudo-human dies. The crew take a strange new ship aboard Moya.

Farscape [Season 3, Episode 3] Self-Inflicted Wounds 1: Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda
Shown 10th September 2001 [Monday]

Moya gets too close to a wormhole, and gets rammed by an alien exploration vessel coming through from the other side. They team up with the aliens in order to separate the two vessels, but the aliens have a secret agenda.

The third pseudo-human is defrosted, and we discover she is a stuck-up bitch with impressive cleavage. Her name is Jooloska ( Tammy McIntosh ), but Crichton just calls her Jool for short,

Farscape [Season 3, Episode 4] Self-Inflicted Wounds 2: Wait For The Wheel
Shown 17th September 2001 [Monday]

Dargo is sad because he lost Chiana, but Crichton never reflects on Aeryn Sun ( Claudia Black ). The cleavage bitch (Jool, played by Tammy McIntosh ) drives Starke to a nervous breakdown.

Nee-alah is a a wonderfully non-villainous antagonist. Also, we get to see the DRDs do something useful!

Will Pilot and Moya die? After all, the crew has a new ship ... We lose one regular character, but gain another.

Farscape [Season 3, Episode 5] ... Different Destinations
Shown 24th September 2001 [Monday]

This is the time-travel episode. It could be terrible, but actually it's quite good. Typically for this show, the writers manage to re-do a tired old concept in a relatively new and interesting way.

Our heroes find themselves in the equivalent of the Alamo, besieged by a tiny Horde - we never see more than about eight at any one time. The aliens are led by Marshal Napier ( The Girl from Tomorrow ).

Can the good guys bring themselves to sacrifice a young PK officer? But whatever they do, they just make things worse. There is a very downbeat ending.

Farscape [Season 3, Episode 6] Eat Me
Shown 8th October 2001 [Monday]

Crichton, Dargo, Chiana and cleavage-girl discover a new Leviathan. It is floating dead in space, and when they board it they run foul of the inhabitants - feral cannibals! Crichton executes a couple for slicing bits of flesh off the living starship - but would he kill farmers to stop them from milking a cow?

Talyn and Crais reappear.

There is no reset button [kinda].

Farscape [Season 3, Episode 7] Thanks For Sharing
Shown 15th October 2001 [Monday]

Moya discovers Talyn, badly injured by a PK retrieval unit. The crew must barter for medicine with an unwilling planet. Worse, the PKs are commanded by ... Aeryn's mother.

The locals have a quaint method of detecting lies - the Lobster of Truth!

Farscape [Season 3, Episode 8] Green-Eyed Monster
Shown 22nd October 2001 [Monday]

Crichton and Crais are getting on each others' nerves, both jealously vying for Aeryn's affections. However, before they can deal with it Talyn gets swallowed by a Budong. You know, the gigantic thing from Home On The Remains.

Starke and Rigel are on a shuttle, bickering like a married couple. Starke thinks he is an expert on Budongs, while Rigel decides to leave the others for dead. Hmm, that is surprising - not!

The relationships of the others - Crais, Crichton, Aeryn Sun ( Claudia Black ) and Talyn - are all explored. Nothing is quite as it seems. And the biggest question ... why has the John/Aeryn romance been burning so slow and hot for so long?

Farscape [Season 3, Episode 9] Losing Time
Shown 29th October 2001 [Monday]

Crichton ordered Pilot to search an area of space for wormholes. After ten days, everyone except Crichton is worn out. They fly through a harmless phenomenon, but Crichton finds himself bleeding inexplicably. This leads on to a scene reminiscent of Blair Witch 2.

Jool ( Tammy McIntosh ) has changed out of her leather S&M gear. She is in some nice pseudo-lingerie instead.

Believe it or not, the real hero of the episode is a DRD. About goddamn time!

There is a minor subplot concerning Scorpius and his quest for wormhole technology.

Farscape [Season 3, Episode 10] Relativity
Shown 5th November 2001 [Monday]

John and Aeryn Sun ( Claudia Black ) are finally lovers again. However, they have problems. Talyn has landed on a heavy-gravity jungle world so he can heal. However, the PeaceKeepers arrive ...

Aeryn, John and Crais try to lead the pursuers on a wild goose chase, deep into the jungle. However, Aeryn's mother has brought along some alien bounty-hunters who are expert trackers.

Aeryn finally gets to spend some time with her mother. Crais and John get to spend time together as well. In both cases, the relationships leave something to be desired.

Farscape [Season 3, Episode 11] Incubator
Shown 12th November 2001 [Monday]

Scorpius' quest for wormhole technology is proving fruitless. He plugs the Crichton chip into his head, and has a face-to-face with the Crichton simulation. Instead of fighting, Scorpy shows Crichton his early life. Yes, we get to see teenage Scorpy and his Skaaran nanny!

Meanwhile, a defector offers the wormhole technology to Crichton and the Moya crew.

Farscape [Season 3, Episode 12] Meltdown
Shown 19th November 2001 [Monday]

Talyn detects strange pulses of radiation from a sun, and is compelled to fly straight into it. He manages to control his urges, but the stress makes him release a synaptic fluid. This strange vapour affects the crew - Aeryn Sun ( Claudia Black ) and Chrichton are horny, which makes it hard - err, difficult for them to concentrate on making repairs to the ship. Talyn and Crais are trigger-happy, and Rigel [comic relief] is hungry.

A demonic-looking appears, and says he wants to help. A ghostly woman appears, and asks mad-boy Starke for help. She claims that the alien wants to keep her (a humanoid ghost) as some kind of sex-slave. Starke, typically psychotic, risks the whole ship and crew in an attempt to save a complete stranger.

Farscape [Season 3, Episode 13] Scratch 'N Sniff
Shown 24th November 2001 [Saturday]

This is a truly outstanding episode. The story is told in flashback, narrated by Crichton to Pilot (who picks up inconsistencies).

The action starts in a nightclub. The morning after, Crichton and Dargo wake up to find that they have been robbed and the girls have been kidnapped by a party dude. Luckily, Raksell (played by Ben Browder's wife!), some kind of short-arsed non-human cockney, offers to help.

Farscape [Season 3, Episode 14] Infinite Possibilities Part I: Daedalus Demands
Shown 26th November 2001 [Monday]

Talyn-Crichton is summoned by the Ancients, in the shape of Kent McCord.

It seems that Wormhole technology has fallen into the hands of the Jareds, sadistic allies of the Skaarans. Crichton states that the only person who could build the technology is a tech-woman named Furlow (from Season One). They go to her base, on a desert planet, and find she is besieged by the Jareds.

Rigel gets to see combat - albeit sidelined in a kamikaze gun turret. Talyn, in comparison, is temporarily blinded by a solar flare.

Farscape [Season 3, Episode 15] Infinite Possibilities Part II: Icarus Abides
Shown 3rd December 2001 [Monday]

Kent McCord tries to remove the Scorpi Clone in Crichton's mind.

Meanwhile, a Skaaran dreadnought appears. Its advance party attacks Talyn. The crew only have a couple of hours before the Dreadnought arrives ...

Finally, there is a Dune Buggy chase straight out of Mad Max 2

Farscape [Season 3, Episode 16] Revenging Angel
Shown 10th December 2001 [Monday]

Something goes wrong with Dargo's ship, and he blames Crichton. The ship apparently goes into self-destruct if some hair gets caught in the controls. Anyway, Dargo takes his frustrations out on the Earthman.

Crichton is trapped in a coma, with only the Scorpiclone for company. Scorpius urges him to take revenge by killing Dargo. Instead, JC keeps himself sane by descending into a fantasy. Yes, this is the Cartoon episode - JC is Roadrunner and Dargo plays Wylie E. Coyote!

Farscape [Season 3, Episode 17] Choices
Shown 17th December 2001 [Monday]

Aeryn Sun ( Claudia Black ) goes to a planet of seers and mystics, in search of a man who can raise the dead.

Among the people she meets on the planet are a man who claims to be her father ... and her mother, of all people. Thanks to a mystic who looks like Kuato in Total Recall , we even get a glimpse of Crichton!

Farscape [Season 3, Episode 18] Fractures
Shown 14th January 2001 [Monday]

Moya contacts a shuttle loaded with more fugitives - a female Hynerian, Nebari and a Skaaran. They have a Peacekeeper Tech as their prisoner, played by Mouse from The Matrix . The fourth prisoner was dismembered in the escape, but Crais and Jool ( Tammy McIntosh ) try to reassemble him. The creature's voice is ... Ben Browder!

D'Argo bonds with the Skaaran, Chiana with the Nebari and Rygel with the Hynerian. However, one of the prisoners is a traitor, and it is a race against time before Moya's location is blown to the PKs.

Farscape [Season 3, Episode 19] I - Yensch, You - Yensch
Shown 21st January 2002 [Monday]

Rygel and D'Argo go to a dodgy diner to meet with Scorpius. However, they have to worry about trigger-happy Peacekeepers and armed robbers. Yes, they get held hostage - this is the Desperate Hours episode.

Meanwhile, Talyn goes crazy and slaughters six hundred innocent civilians. Crais and the others try to persuade him to let them switch off his mechanical systems. Chiana has psychic flashes of future events ...

Farscape [Season 3, Episode 20] Into The Lion's Den Part I: Lambs To The Slaughter
Shown 24th January 2002 [Thursday]

Our heroes board Scorpius' vessel. Scorpy and Crichton wear the shared-impulse bracelets. Aeryn Sun ( Claudia Black ) meets her best buddy from her PK days. Crais tries to get Talyn repaired, and we discover that while he was lusting after Aeryn he already had a GF!

Chiana has another psychic flash. Scorpius says he called off the retrieval squad, but is he lying?

The PK crew are mutinous, unhappy because the renegades are being pardoned. Scorpy's superiors want to make a truce with the Skaarans, so they decide to terminate his command.

Farscape [Season 3, Episode 21] Into The Lion's Den Part II: Wolf in Sheep's Clothing
Shown 28th January 2002 [Monday]

Scorpy threatens to destroy Earth. Crichton decides that the only way to destroy the wormhole project is to destroy the entire Command Carrier!

Scorpius has Crais banned from Talyn, and uses this as leverage against him. Crais is as duplicitious as ever, and plays both ends against the middle. He has a plan ...

Crichton takes Scorpy for a spin in the Farscape Module. However, the others get arrested and imprisoned before the Command Carrier can be destroyed.

Farscape [Season 3, Episode 22] Dog with Two Bones
Shown 31st January 2002 [Thursday]

Moya takes Talyn's remains to the Leviathan Burial Ground. The crew are preparing to split up and go their own ways. Crichton is preoccupied with thoughts of taking Aeryn Sun ( Claudia Black ) to Earth and marrying her. A strange crazy old woman is aboard Moya, distracting him.

A psychotic Leviathan attacks Moya, and refuses to let Talyn be buried there. Apparently Dargo's ship is powerful enough to destroy it!

Kent McCord and Scorpius both make brief appearances.

The ending? Well, the three-Season Story Arc is pretty much tied up. However, the cliff-hanger ending leaves things open for a new Arc!